Order of Scorpions

by Ivy Asher

The only thing I ever want to be to anyone is the last thing they see before they die.

I was raised in this hole of despair, and now, despite my every effort, I will die here never knowing anything different. Hope truly is a deadly viper, and at last its poison has finally come for me.

There’s a part of me that welcomes the threat in his eyes while another piece of me promises I won’t go easy. My blood doesn’t run cold. Sweat doesn’t bead my brow, and there’s no hesitation weighing my muscles down as his eyes stay fixed on mine. All I can think is, if he’s going to kill me, maybe sooner rather than later might not be such a bad thing, and I wonder how many of them I could take with me before I go.

What happened to me is that they’ve finally stripped me of everything. This is what happens when there’s nothing more to live for, when there’s nothing left to lose.

I’ve spent so long being tightly wound and in control, and now I’ve lost it.

A thumb caresses my cheek, and I wait for the questions to come, the ones I’ll offer up lies to because that’s what you do when someone asks if you’re okay when okay is impossible.

One moment she looks capable of burning the world to the ground to get where she wants to go, but in the next blink, she’s hollow, lost, like she’s ready for it all to be over. I can’t stop seeing that war in her eyes, and I hate that I don’t know which side of her will win.

Now she wants to walk out of here, possessing pieces of me she doesn’t even know she has, and I can’t allow it.

“You’re my brother and I don’t want to hurt you, but she’s my mate. If you don’t move, I will fuck you up,” I warn.

I have to shut this down, but I don’t know how. I need things from them, but I need to figure out how to get what I want without it costing me more than I’m willing to give.

“Now, now, Beasty, you’re so quick to protest, but it’s clear you’re in desperate need of something,” he taunts. “Yeah, to rip your head from your body and spit down your throat,” I growl back. Riall’s smile grows even wider. “I’d much prefer you to swallow, Beasty,”

at the end of three months, if you choose to leave, you can take everything you’ve been given, because it’s yours. You can do nothing more than eat, sleep, heal, train, and hate us while you’re here, and it will all still be yours no matter what. We’re not trading, Auset, we’re giving.”

She’s yet to discover this about me, but I always get what I want. And I want my mate. I don’t care how long it takes or what I have to do.

“You left me, Riall,” I tell him, and he winces as though the statement just slapped him across the face. I can see that my words claw at him, not because they’re laced with anger or accusation, but because my tone is as hollow as I feel right now. “I’m all of these things to you now, but then…then when I needed everything you’re offering me, I was nothing. Not even worthy of a final glance back.”

“I didn’t see you then,” he admits, his thumb stroking softly over my cheek. “But I see you now.”

“That’s the thing though, Bones, you’re too late.”

“Auset’s about to learn that the Scorpions play for keeps.”

“If you don’t put me down right now, I’ll—” “You’ll what?” Tarek challenges as he pulls me from his shoulder and sets me on my feet by the fire. I flounder as he glares at me, the look in his eyes contesting my interrupted threat. I wasn’t actually expecting him to give in to my demand yet, and I suddenly question what exactly my threat would have been.

How many times will I watch the Scorpions sting themselves in an effort to prove the sincerity of their actions and words?

If the three of them are the bargain for my soul, they can have it.

I won’t let fear guide me down a different path when the one I want, the one I need, is right in front of me.

We are the dealers of death that creep from the shadows. We are the owners of each other’s destinies. We are the Order of Scorpions, and our reign begins now.